Michael A. De Leon is a graphic designer by day, but wears many hats in his off time. In 2004, after several years of covering the Spurs, he started Project Spurs, a Spurs team fansite as an outlet to provide content to Spurs fans, while continuing to write for himself and learning the ins and outs of online publishing and web design. He has since built a writing team and started a popular weekly Spurs podcast called the Spurscast.

Note: This is an mySA.com City Brights Blog. These blogs are not written or edited by mySA or the San Antonio Express-News. The authors are solely responsible for the content.

Gary Neal stepping up

After suffering a four game sweep at the hands of the Phoenix Suns in last year’s playoffs, one area of concern for the San Antonio Spurs was consistent, reliable perimeter shooting.

Enter Gary Neal.

When the Spurs signed him many Spurs fans pondered “Who is this guy?” Some of you might have asked that question during the San Antonio Spurs game against the Los Angeles Clippers. Well, Neal played for Towson in college, went undrafted in 2007 and has spent the last several years playing overseas. He had a productive season in Italy and the Eurocup before coming to San Antonio

Neal had an outstanding 2010 Summer League performance in Las Vegas which earned him a 3-year guaranteed contract with the Spurs starting at $ 525,000. Although he was regarded as one of the top recruits overseas, his rookie debut did not come with any hype. He only played one minute and grabbed one offensive rebound in the Spurs’ season opener against the Indiana Pacers.